Kevin VanDam might have walked away with the Advanced Auto Parts Blue Ridge Brawl trophy and the $100,000 champion’s check, but in the end it might just be the Smith Mountain Lake area which comes away as the real winner.

In response to Rick Howell’s March 18 column concerning embryonic stem cell research, I have one point to make which is never mentioned by the main stream media. It is a fact that there have been successes as well as promising results with the use of adult stem cells. On the other hand there have been zero successes or promise with embryonic stem cells.

I recently had the honor of traveling with the Surgeons General of the U.S. Army and Navy and a bipartisan group of Members of Congress from the Veterans’ Affairs Committee on a mission to Afghanistan. We had the unique opportunity to see first-hand the heroism and professionalism of our medical personnel saving lives overseas, from the battlefront to transition hospitals. Our soldiers were heartened to receive notes of support that I brought over from Rustburg Elementary and Middle School, Gladys Elementary, and Dillwyn Primary School.

Sunday, April 26th marks Debt Day for the 2009 fiscal year. This is the day the government starts paying for federal spending by borrowing money rather than using its revenue. This means that all of the money spent from Washington the rest of this year will either be borrowed from other countries or borrowed from future generations, in turn increasing our federal debt dramatically.

Under the leadership of President Barack Obama, the United States may finally be prepared to close the book on one of the most lingering and most useless remnants of the Cold War: the trade embargo against Cuba.

Even the weather cooperated last week when Elisha Ray Nance’s body was laid to rest with the honors befitting an American hero.

By the weather cooperating, I mean that it was perfect for a D-Day funeral. It was overcast, cold and wet, much like that morning when Ray headed for a French beach 65 years ago. Ray was second in command of Company A that day and the only company officer to reach the beach and live to tell about it. He was severely wounded in the process, wounded so badly that it took nearly a year for him to recover.